Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Softbank said to eye possible M&A opportunities in Europe, Forbes saysSoftbank (SFTBF), who owns the majority of Sprint (S), is eyeing possible M&A opportunities in Europe while it awaits a liquidity boost from the IPO of Alibaba, according to a Forbes contributor, citing a telecom executive and banker. Softbank favors a Sprint-T-Mobile (TMUS) merger, but the executive cited "heard a rumor" that Softbank is looking into a potential deal with Vodafone (VOD), according to the report. Reference Link

Deutsche Telekom partnering with Mozilla on 'privacy phone,' WSJ saysDeutsche Telekom (DTEGY), owner of T-Mobile (TMUS), is partnering with Mozilla to develop a "privacy phone" set for an official unveil at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona March 2-5, reports the Wall Street Journal. The phone will use a version of Mozilla's Firefox operating system and will include features such as location hiding. Reference Link

T-Mobile releases teaser image of Samsung Galaxy S6, The Verge saysT-Mobile (TMUS) CEO John Legere released a teaser image of Samsung's (SSNLF) upcoming Galaxy S6 smartphone and also confirmed the carrier will offer the S6, reports The Verge, citing tweets and a T-Mobile website. The teaser image suggest a metal backing and curved screen edges on both sides of the phone. An official reveal is expected March 1. Reference Link

AT&T VP critical of Dish auction tacticsAT&T (T) VP of Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh stated in a post to a corporate blog that FCC Auction 97 represents "hard evidence that there is significant continuing interest in licensed spectrum... It didn't matter that it was mid-band spectrum. It mattered only that it was broadband spectrum." Marsh notes that Dish (DISH) won more licenses than any other bidder though "none of that spectrum is currently supporting commercial wireless services," with her suggestion being that "auctions should be designed to ensure that licenses go to those willing to deploy networks – not speculators or stockpilers...The government should continue to place a high priority on allocating new licensed bands to the wireless industry." Marsh continues her analysis of Dish, claiming the double and triple-bidding activity carried out by its two designated entities "circumvented auction activity rules, masked actual demand and distorted the auction," as they were able to win significant allocations while enjoying a 25% small business discount. In response to Dish claims that all companies use DEs, Marsh replies that "in more recent auctions... bidders like AT&T, Verizon (VZ) and T-Mobile (TMUS) had no DE relationships, participated directly and paid full price for their licenses." Reference Link

T-Mobile says COO Jim Alling resigns, effective March 13T-Mobile said in a filing that on February 17, Jim Alling, who has served as EVP and COO, T-Mobile Business, since April 2013, informed the company that he is resigning as an officer of the company, effective March 13. On February 13, Mike Sievert was appointed COO. Sievert previously served as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of the company since April 2013 and from November 2012 to April 2013, Sievert was EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of T-Mobile USA.

T-Mobile targets 2.2M-3.2M branded postpaid net customer additions in 2015Targets 2015 adjusted EBITDA of $6.8B-$7.2B. Targets 2015 Cash CapEx of $4.4B-$4.7B. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2015 is expected to be significantly impacted by a large investment to front end customer growth in 2015, similar to what the Company did in 2014. In addition, the first quarter of 2015 will reflect the accounting treatment of Un-carrier 8.0: Data Stash, which is expected to have a non-cash impact in the range of $100 million to $150 million.